


Hounds

by MarsupialsOfMars



Category: jacksepticeye, youtube - Fandom
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-25
Updated: 2020-01-25
Packaged: 2021-02-27 16:00:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,266
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22409845
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MarsupialsOfMars/pseuds/MarsupialsOfMars
Summary: A fanfic for cyanacity's (on tumblr) Hounds AU, using some of the concepts she'd provided!
Comments: 1
Kudos: 8





	Hounds

Chase grabbed the corner of the wall and swung into the hallway. His surroundings pulsed red and static hissed, drowning out his tinnitus. Between pulses of light it was dark, and every time he could see he did a head count. Shneep, JJ, Jackie. Shneep, JJ… where’s Jackie? THERE. JJ, Shneep, Jackie.

His heart raced as he ran. They were lost, the halls twisted and warped and every turn sent them further into a labyrinth of red as the static grew, and the barking got louder. Chase could hardly think, as if the glitching was reaching into his brain and robbing him of his thoughts.

He looked around again. Shneep, Jackie… JJ?

Chase whipped his head around, but found not even the faintest sillohuete of…

“JAMESON?!” His voice was hoarse from panting and he gasped for breath after expelling so much. “JJ!?”

He didn’t know what he was yelling for. JJ couldn’t respond. Easy prey. A quick first course to pick off. They were being toyed with. Just like last time. When he was on his own. When he lost his…

His steps slowed. There was no use running. He couldn’t go forever, and suddenly he knew, more strongly than he had ever known anything, that running was and never had been a viable option. The glitch just liked to watch them think that it was. He stopped.

“CHASE?!” Jackie grabbed Henrik’s shoulder and whipped around to look at Chase, stood in the middle of the hall, turned to look the oncoming barking dead on. It grew louder. Deafening. Barks, whines, howls, noises bubbling up through the foam of frothing maws.

And they arrived. Chase watched as the tidal wave of hounds burst around the corner, crashing against the wall, sending some up the side with the momentum, clawing plaster before they tumbled back into the swell and rounded the corner.

Right before they reached him, he heard a whistle.

An eerie, static whistle which seemed to shift tones rapidly with each glitch, though prolonged. The dogs immediately stopped, as if there were an invisible wall five feet from Chase. Henrik and Jackie looked on with bated breath, fifteen feet ahead. The lights ceased to pulse and instead maintained the hall’s ominous mood lighting.

“Aw, boo. My puppies prefer chasing their prey.” The voice echoed through the hall. Another whistle, quicker, and the dogs parted down the middle like the Red See.

There he was, taking his sweet time, letting his hands trail over the nearby dogs’ heads as he walked. At his touch, the dogs’ pushed into his hand, whimpering when he passed them without a second glance.

“We’re not going to run anymore.” Chase crossed his arms, plastering a determined scowl across his face, trying to hide his terror and persistent tremors.

“Smart. When did you get so smart? Marv, can you believe this?” A small white cat stepped out from the sea of dogs, ruffled and covered in drool. It leapt onto the tallest dog’s back and onto Anti’s shoulder. Chase tried to catch his former friend’s eye but he turned away, masking his shame by beginning to lick his paw. He wouldn’t take his real form. That would require face to face confrontation of his wrongdoings. And he was far too much of a coward for that. Anti chuckled and ruffled his pet’s fur, not ready to allow him any dignity. “So cute.”

Chase ignored the traitor. “Where’s Jameson?”

Anti looked around with mock bewilderment. He clicked his tongue. “JJ? Jameson? Where are you buddy? Oh, I know!” He beckoned a dog from the crowd. “This fella’s a bloodhound, he’ll find him.” He smirked and his nose crinkled in hardly hidden malice. “Go on boy, find Jameson.”

At his word, the dog launched off and bounded off into the sea of hounds, long, frantic nails scrabbling across the floor.

Excited barks rang out among the crowd and the bloodhound reemerged into the aisle, gripping an ankle in its jaws. It dragged Jameson up to Anti and dropped his leg at its master’s feet.

“Good boy!” He grabbed JJ’s vest and yanked him upright. As soon as Chase could see his face he could tell that it was tearstained and bloody. “Use your legs, puppet.”

Jameson tried to stand, pushing himself up with one leg. He grasped his other thigh tightly; it was clear he couldn’t stand. Anti rolled his eyes and flicked his fingers, catching JJ with materialized strings. He contorted his fingers expertly as if puppeteering a marionette, and JJ jerky followed his motions, one leg up, than the bad one. He winced at the pain, baring his teeth and clenching his eyes shut, but stood straight and attentive. As his hands left his leg, blood coursed down and coiled into his inner thigh. It originated from what Chase could only assume was a vicious bite from the rottweiler that stood nearby, on which Chase could now make out bloodied jowls.

“How did you already do all that?!” Jackie yelped from a few feet behind Chase. Chase hadn’t noticed that they had made their way forward, still focused on the wound. He processed Jackie’s words, “all that”, which confused him until he noticed the glisten of blood, which shone from not only his friend’s leg, but also his arm, his forehead, his ankle… bite marks of all shapes and sizes, and they were deep. The red lights made the darker red of the blood look almost black, like oil pooling on the ground.

“Oh, I didn’t lay a finger on him. My dogs just get a little restless from time to time. Especially her. Don’t you Stacy? Yes you do!” Anti praised the bloody rottweiler as if he were talking to a baby.

Chase, too astonished to process the familiar name, looked back up to Jamie’s eyes. They were terrified and dull with pain, but he caught Chase looking at him. He darted his eyes quickly to Anti, still distracted, before quickly pounding a fist into an open palm, thumb extended, pleading.

“Ah! Jamie, Jamie, Jamie, what did we talk about? Quiet hands.”

Jamie stiffened and crossed his hands against his chest, shaking his head frantically. Anti jerked his fingers and one hand was pulled away from JJ’s body, fingers splayed.

“See lads, Jamie here agreed with me that puppets don’t talk. And he knows how much it annoys me when he breaks his promise.” As he spoke, he wound his wrist as if pulling in slack. JJ struggled to pull away but however effortless Anti made it seem, his will was unbeatable. In a moment, Jamie’s trembling hand was positioned in plain view for everyone to see. Anti raised it up as if preparing for a magic trick. Instead, he let out a breif whistle.

In a fraction of a second, a sturdy German shepherd lunged forward and locked its jaws around Jamie’s hand. He screamed silently, face contorted in agony. There was a chorus of cracks and pops as bones snapped, ligaments tore, and flesh was mangled. The Shepard shook its head, teeth piercing further until they met in the middle.

“JAMESON!” Chase choked the name out between horrified ramblings of “holy shit” and “fucking Christ”. Jackie accompanied him but, rather than words, he let loose a chorus of visceral, gut-wrenching noises.

Henrik pushed past Jackie and ran forward. He had had enough. He reached out for Jamie but, before he could make contact, another dog tackled him to the ground. Strings of foam splattered across his face and across his bared teeth. It lunged for his throat but he rolled just in time, taking a pair of pearly husky jaws to the shoulder, where they dug in and stayed. He screamed through his teeth and kicked at the dog, the heel of his shoe knocking the wind from its ribs, but it still held strong.

Jackie’s hero instincts finally kicked in and he ran to Henrik’s aid, wrapping his arms around the husky’s torso and yanking it off. It flailed its paws and whipped its head back and forth, jaws snapping in search of anything made of flesh. Jackie let out a war cry and threw it aside. It tumbled across the hardwood but quickly regained its footing with a panicked scrabble of claws. It growled and leapt, catching Jackie on the side of the neck as he reached down to assist Henrik.

Chase, now panicking and unsure what to do, stumbled forward toward the Shepard on Jamie’s hand and took each side of it’s jaw in his fists. He pulled, his biceps strained, but he managed to loosen its grip enough for Jamie to pull his hand out. The dog ran back into the crowd proudly gnawing on something, and it didn’t take more than a glance back toward Jamie to realize that it had taken his index finger as a trophy.

Chase wasted no time wrapping his arms around Jamie and pulling him a few strides down the hall, away from Anti. He fell to the floor and wrapped around Jamie protectively, not daring to try anything else. He felt JJ trembling in his arms and could feel a mixture wet tears and blood soaking his shirt. He blocked out the barking and screaming. All he needed was to protect somebody, anybody, like he hadn’t been able to the last time.

And as quickly as it began, it was over. Anti shouted something and everything fell still.

“Drop it!” Chase lifted his head to see Anti scolding the husky with Jackie’s throat in its teeth. It released him and licked its teeth before hanging its head submissively. “It’s no fun if you kill one of them. Shoo.” The dog ran back into the pack with its tail tucked, the two others that had joined the brawl following after it.

Jackie held his neck and Henrik cradled his shoulder and kept one eye closed. They each had several bites and claw marks down their faces and arms, just beginning to fade from white to dark pink.

“How well did that go for everyone? Good job rescuing my puppet’s hand, hope it was worth it.”

Chase looked down at Jamie’s hand, mangled, crushed, and missing a finger, then to the rest of the group, not much better off.

“Three for the price of one. Thanks for the impromptu show.” Anti giggled, its tone shifting and warping into something indescribably inhuman. “Now for the main act.”

He reached to his shoulder and grabbed Marvin (who had buried his face into the back of Anti’s hair for the duration of the battle) by the scruff. He yowled and hissed sat the sudden manhandling, but quickly quelled the impulse when his eyes met Anti’s. The demon grinned, fangs glinting in the red glow. He turned the cat to face the carnage and held him out at arms length.

Marvin’s pupils dilated and his spine arched inward, legs pulling to his stomach and tail tucking between his legs. Chase could read feline body language. The traitor was terrified, horrified, and… guilty. Chase began to rethink what he’d assumed of his former friend.

“Okay kitty kitty, Since you’ve been so patient… how about you pick our new pet? I’ve been thinking we’re due for a new one. Thought we could swing by and pick one up.”

Chase blinked. What was he talking about? He scanned Marvin’s face to glean any context. His ears fell back flat and his pupils shrank to slivers. His tail bushed. Bad signs.

“Come on Marv, you wouldn’t waste my time, would you? This visit has already taken far longer than I hoped, what with all the running and the teaching of lessons. But I guess if you don’t feel like picking, it could always just be you…”

Marvin flailed his paws and his tail waved wildly ass he craned his neck back to look at Anti’s sly grin. He meowed as if trying to negotiate, but Anti just shook his head calmly and began to swing him back and forth by the scruff.

“Tick tock, tick tock, what’ll it be?” Anti began to mumble as if thinking aloud as Marvin panicked. “I wonder what breed would fit you. Chihuahua? Fox terrier? Poodle? You are the flashy type aren’t you…”

Marvin scanned the wounded group desperately, as if weighing options, pros and cons.

“Ten seconds. Ten. Nine.”

Marvin yowled, overwhelmed by frustration and panic.

“Eight. Seven. Six.”

Marvin was trembling, eyes flicking between the four, trying to spend a lifetime with each of them within a hundredth of a second at a time.

“Five. Four. Three. Two-”

“JACKIE!” The cat had spoken. He fell limp and his tail curled between his pathetic, limp kitten legs. Anti grinned and dropped him.

“Good choice.”

A flash of light from the ground, and a caped man sat on his knees where the cat had fallen. He lifted his head, useless tears rolling down his face.

“I’m sorry Jackie. Everybody.” It was barely audible, but Chase could hear it.

With a flick of Anti’s wrist, two Bulldogs came bounding up to Jackie, each taking a shoulder. Weak from blood loss, he could hardly retaliate as he was dragged, limp and bloody, into the sea of slobbering canines.

“We’ll be seeing you. Next time, don’t try to run.” The demon flashed a final toothy smile before turning and vanishing into the hounds as they all stood and began to run back to wherever they had come from, barking, howling.

The sounds grew fainter and fainter, until they were gone.

One less head to count.


End file.
